Entry #36

Monday, 4 September 2023

9.45am

It’s my last full day’s work before we go on holiday! I need to try and stay focussed, as I’ve got lots to do…

I’ve just had a great weekend with the family in Bolton and Bury. Plus, I managed to take my two fifteen-year-old nephews to one side and bombard them with research questions about my fifteen-year-old character in the novel. Now I know all about how you can play video games while on holiday, how you care for braces and how they affect what you eat, and the music currently in favour amongst teenage boys living in Greater Manchester – which is surprisingly retro, with Oasis and the Stone Roses figuring heavily. So all that’s going into my character profiles…

On the journey back to London I also got my long-awaited email reply from the producer I’ve been hoping will take on the musical I’ve written with a composer friend. After two months of waiting! He apologised for the delay – apparently he was ill and then had two shows opening back-to-back and he’s also developing several new musicals. But this delay also explains the nature of his response; although he thinks our latest draft is a big improvement, he doesn’t think his company is ‘in a position to take it on fully at the moment on our own.’ He adds that ‘if a regional were to produce it and we could look at being a commercial partner, then I would absolutely love to have that conversation…’

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But I don’t know what that means in practice. Is he just fobbing us off? Part of me thinks if he really liked it, he’d jump at the chance of getting involved, whatever his already existing commitments. Which is what I thought about my friend the director. At the same time, I accept that the producer has a point – and if he’s so busy that it takes him two months to read and listen to our material then he just can’t be the right lead producer, at least not at the moment.

So where do we go from here (as Madonna sang in Evita)? I’ve no idea. But I’ve scheduled a zoom meeting with the composer and our theatre agent for tomorrow morning. So hopefully we’ll be able to come up with some kind of rough plan…

But before then I’ve got to finish reading through and checking the American version of Becoming Ted. So it’s going to be a full day… I’d better get on with it!

Tuesday, 5 September 2023

3.20pm

This airport is unbelievably busy considering it’s after the school holidays. So much for waiting for September then it would quieten down. We’ve managed to find two seats in the main waiting area but people are rushing past us to catch their planes, one woman clutching her rucksack as if it’s full of treasure, and three large women have stopped for a chat right in the middle of the walkway, bizarrely oblivious to the inconvenience they’re causing. There’s also a young American man pacing around having an incredibly banal conversation over speakerphone, seemingly unaware that everyone around him may not want to listen.

It was a mad scramble to get all my work done before we left the house. I just about managed it and have also managed to clear the decks of all the big distractions – so I can be ready to start my first draft of the new novel when I’m home. Although as I clear the distractions, others seem to be appearing. My publicist has been in touch to ask if I’ll do what’s called a ‘proof drop’ event with booksellers in Manchester at the end of this month – in conjunction with another author whose upcoming novel is set in the city – working my way around shops to give booksellers an advance reading copy of One Love and hopefully charm them into stocking it, then inviting all the retailers plus local librarians and journalists for a drink at the end of the day. It’s actually brilliant that the team are making an effort and coming up with ideas to punch through with this book so I’m not complaining – on the contrary, I’m thrilled to bits. But it does remind me that I have to be really strict in stripping everything else out of my schedule, everything that’s under my control or can be pushed back till after I’ve completed the first draft, because other things like this will come up, other things I can’t – and wouldn’t want – to get out of.

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I’ve also been in touch with Unbound, the crowdfunding publisher that released The Madonna of Bolton, to see if there’s any promotion or marketing activity we can rustle up in the run-up to the opening of Madonna’s long-awaited greatest hits tour next month. The team responded enthusiastically, linking in colleagues who might also help – so that’s encouraging.

And there’s a chance that activity around my musical might finally be restarting; this morning I had my zoom meeting with the composer and our agent and the agent is going to go back to this producer and clarify his interest in being involved in a secondary capacity, then start touting around for a lead producer. He did warn that all the producers he knows are busy and over-committed at the moment but said he and his team have been having a lot of success lately so thinks they should be able to get quick answers from people. He actually sounded quite bullish and, even though this is the project that saps my confidence and disrupts my mental health the most - because it’s dragged on for so long and has been mired in so much drama and disappointment - I’ll be really excited if we can somehow resuscitate it.

The American man who was having a conversation via speakerphone has finally stopped but the woman next to me is eating a chocolate bar with her mouth open and it’s setting my teeth on edge. And the airport is so packed that I’m writing this with my bare arms touching hers. I’m feeling quite upbeat, though, because I’m going away knowing that the various teams working on my projects are engaged and enthusiastic. More than anything else, it’s inactivity and a lack of communication that unnerves and sometimes disturbs me. And that’s a huge relief as I’ve been excited about this holiday for a while and really want to enjoy it.

In a few hours’ time, we should be arriving at our AirBnB in Rome. While there, my plan is to switch off from work for a few days. Then, once we reach our house in Montemagno – the setting for the new novel! – I won’t be able to stop my mind from straying onto work. So I expect that’s the next time I’ll write in this diary. See you there!

The Castle of Stories is out now, published by Pansy.